“Way over yonder in the minor key, way over yonder in the minor key, ain’t nobody who can sing like me” The is the chorus to the unreleased Woody Guthrie song, which was recorded (along with many others) by Billy Bragg. One of the things that make me a major Woody Fan was the fact that he wrote a new song every day, no matter what. It wasn’t always a tale of sex, but usually a tale of sorrow. He was a man who never tired to impress anyone, he did his thing for himself. Woody was a man who not only was “hard working”, but a man who studied, and wrote about the working class. He has countless anthems that represent the life of these everyday people, giving them a voice, and someone to relate to. In his book “Bound For Glory” he documents countless instances within his life, where the working man was shut down. He told his own traveling story through his own eyes, also reveling tales of his hard childhood, which play a major role in why he was who he was. The last thing I will say about this man is that his use of “everyday working man lingo.” In singing/writing in this format we can allow the workers to fully understand him. This is what brings it home for me, he is the great great grandfather of Punk Rock! He did things within the boundaries of Punk, 30 years before the Ramones, and twenty years before The Stooges! Woody was the true definition of a drifter!

Rock & Roll, the heart of rebellious music! With the bringing together of R&B, and country we see a much faster, much louder, and much more intense creation! The title of my post comes from the band The Velvet Underground, although we didn’t make it to them yet,(if we d0) but the lyrics to the song describe rock & roll so perfectly I couldn’t resist! Another important line in the song is “You know her life was saved by rock & roll!” This is a powerful genre to be saving the lives of broken teenagers everywhere. By the time the modern world of the 1950 appears, we couldn’t live without this rock & roll. With the newly added ascetic distortion, rock & roll had a cutting edge appeal that kids love, and parents hate. Could you imagine a world where we have gyrating Elvis guys everywhere? A world without wholesome fellows like The Crew Cuts? I can, and so could the rest of the screaming fans that brought this music onto our pop charts. The milestone of rock & roll is just what our country needed, a way in which we can all let go and jam out to our favorite guitar players like Little Richard, or listen to our favorite singers like Elvis. Black and white doesn’t matter! These guys laid the grounds for something eternal! As long as we have rock & roll everything will be alright, just like Lou says at the end of the song!

Rhythm and blues is an interesting genre, it is the last step in musical evolution before rock & roll was born. Although I don’t much listen to R&B myself, I understand its importance in history. Generally today there are many R&B elements still in the popular music world. A very interesting genre that I never really thought much about was gospel. Now that I have an understanding how it came about, I can see its importance in musical history. The fact that a typical Blues man decided to change the game is heart warming to me!